Out in the Cold: Goose Bay not in Tories’ Arctic Sovereignty Plan

HAPPY VALLEY-GOOSE BAY, July 29, 2009 — Labrador M.P. Todd Russell says he is disappointed, but not at all surprised, that the Harper Conservatives’ plan for exercising Arctic sovereignty contains no plans for Goose Bay or Labrador.

“The announcement the Harper government made on Sunday is just the latest breach of a very broken promise,” Russell said. “They are making great efforts to exclude Goose Bay from their vision for Canada’s North and the Canadian Armed Forces.”

Three Conservative Ministers released the Conservative’s Arctic agenda, titled “Canada’s Northern Strategy”, in a press conference on Sunday.

“We were told to be patient, to wait for the Tories’ ‘Canada First’ plan, that there would be something in it for Goose Bay. That was a blatant lie. We have been told, as far back as Gordon O’Connor’s first visit to Goose Bay four years ago, that the future of the base was tied to Arctic sovereignty. That was also a lie.”

“The ‘Northern Sovereignty Support Centre’ that was supposedly part of ‘Canada First’ never materialized. Then we learned that the Arctic Response Company Group for Atlantic Canada is based in New Brunswick. And now, Harper’s grand plan for the North does not include Goose Bay, or Labrador, at all. The words ‘Goose Bay’ are nowhere to be found in the document.”

“The empty promises on Goose Bay have been repeated by Peter Mackay and even Stephen Harper himself. They have no Arctic sovereignty plans for Goose Bay, as their northern policy now makes very clear. In fact, they have no plans of any kind for Goose Bay at all – the Rapid Reaction Battalion and UAV squadron, promised in three election campaigns, aren’t even off the table. They were never on it in the first place.”